I don't know if you guys heard...but the whole Jessica Lynch thing was staged. They asked the iraqi guards to hold her a few days longer to get heroic publicity when they saved her. And as it turned out, an Iraqi hospital had helped her and taken care of her already, they were going to give her back to the troops, but when the ambulance can they started firing upon it.......what do you think about this

Sincerely,
-a proud american

There's no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going. There's no knowing where we're rowing or which way the river's flowing. Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing? Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. Are the fires of hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Yes, the danger must be growing 'cause the rowers keep on rowing, and they're certainly not showing any signs that they are slowing. AAAGGHHH!!!

Yes, she was the POW taken hostage by the Iraqi guards. There was a lot of other hostages, but they were released a couple days before. And yes, we "rescued" her. She was actually a hostage, but we asked the Iraqi guards to keep her for a few days so we could "rescue" her. Get it yet?

There's no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going. There's no knowing where we're rowing or which way the river's flowing. Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing? Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. Are the fires of hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Yes, the danger must be growing 'cause the rowers keep on rowing, and they're certainly not showing any signs that they are slowing. AAAGGHHH!!!

OK. It sure cleared away any previous impressions I had about the US military. Bomb the country all to hell, send in some troops for the show-effect and then have the press praise them as heroes for fighting against oppression and liberating POWs.

Originally posted by Branik OK. It sure cleared away any previous impressions I had about the US military. Bomb the country all to hell, send in some troops for the show-effect and then have the press praise them as heroes for fighting against oppression and liberating POWs.

Hit it right on the head, Branik.

Quote:

Originally posted by Tall Guy are there any links to a news story about this staging?

Yeah, what about that? As plausable as it sounds, do you have any proof? And remember, 3000 pages of disjointed rantings on the Geo****ties homepage of a mentally unbalanced socialist is not considered "proof".

In case you can't be bothered reading it: no, it doesn't suggest that the Americans "asked the Iraqi guards to hold her a few days longer", but it does suggest the operation was staged for purely propaganda reasons. That much seems fairly obvious - why else take a camera team along? - but the report also suggests that Lynch didn't really need rescuing, since there was nobody but doctors to rescue her from.

The other, more interesting part of the programme, which rang more true than the Jessica Lynch part anyway, just talked about the extent to which propaganda played a part in the war coverage. From embedded journalists to the daily 'freedom briefings' (from which one reporter was ejected after asking "what's the point of us being here?" to much applause), they were intricately designed to promote the American side. I think Darth-Eggplant has the right idea - stay away from TV coverage at all costs!

TV can be as objective as the other media, but you have to be careful as to which channel you are looking at. During the "war", I was often surprised as to how different the contents of the news broadcasts were between different channels. For example CNN kept on ranting about US advancement all the time, while BBC and the finnish YLE kept a more objective view for the duration of the charade. They also informed people of the events from the Iraqi point of view.

that's an enormous forum with loads of high profile contributors. during the war they had lots of iraqi points of view. it's good with the internet the way it is, so anyone has a voice. sometimes this is bad but as long as you keep that pinch of salt handy, and don't mind too much pretentious bs then it's an ok site.

and so being young and dipped in folly,
i fell in love with melancholy.